


home, where the heart is

by wan17



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alien Cultural Differences, Alien/Human Relationships, Alternate Universe - Future, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Family Fluff, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, courting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-27
Updated: 2016-12-27
Packaged: 2018-09-12 14:27:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9076543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wan17/pseuds/wan17
Summary: It’s when Shiro looks up at him, tilting his head, asking, “How about you?” that Sendak realizes that: It doesn’t matter whether or not he’s Galran. Shiro will be his.
With a vengeance, over the next few months, Sendak courts.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CAPSING](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CAPSING/gifts).



> This was written for the Shendak Secret Santa Exchange 2016, with the prompt Neighbor AU. Happy holidays, Caps! Sorry I got this out so late and so short, too - hope you like it anyways! I've never read nor written something quite like this and I'm sorry in advance 8)

The doorbell rings.

The weather forecast said that it would be a bright and beautiful day to be outside gardening, but the Galran is hunched over his laptop pounding out emails about security protocol to Haxus, and he doesn’t expect to be out anytime soon. He’s down with his heat, and it makes his limbs slow, his head heavy. Without anyone his instincts view as his mate, it presents like a seasonal flu. He’s curled up in a blanket on his armchair, and he’s warm, and he hates how social decorum dictates that he should get up and answer the door.

Sendak expects a hapless salesman or a girl scout. He’s prepared to glare at the salesman until he quivers and decides that Sendak’s residential unit is a bad idea to go to, and glare at the scout until she hands him his biscuits.

What he doesn’t expect is an Earthling a good head shorter than he is, looking up at him.

“Hi,” he says, eyes crinkling. “I’m your new neighbor.” The corners of his mouth turn up, and he bares short, blunt teeth in a facsimile of aggression. The nerve of it, coming into his yard, on what Sendak assumes is the very first day they’ve settled in, already trying to assert dominance over the territory… Sendak can’t stop himself from doing the same thing in return.

As Sendak tilts his head to survey this Shiro, two heads pop up from behind his legs, clinging onto the fabric of his jeans. The smaller one pipes up. “I’m Pidge!” There’s another one, but it’s quiet, and he watches the earthling nudge it before it squeaks and says, “I’m Keith!”

“Sendak,” he grunts.

“Hope you don’t mind so much, but we’re new to the neighborhood- just came in, we’re temporarily stationed here, only going to stay for six months or so. We haven’t been around the area too much, maybe you could- show us around?” The big earthling looks abashed, now, looking down. It’s completely uncharacteristic of his earlier display, and Sendak’s not quite sure what to make of it. He still stands tall, though, making it clear that he doesn’t expect to be rejected, and then Sendak feels something tugging on the fur of his leg.

“Is your fur real?” The small earthling asks. He can feel it tickling his skin, and he’s nonplussed. He mutters in return. ”Of course it’s real.” He can see its eyes widen in surprise, and then joy.

Sendak isn’t stupid. He knows that they are likely the earthling’s spawn. At this point, he’s gotten over his surprise, and is ready to reject them and let them know that no, Sendak doesn’t have the time for this, he’s busy, and he’s not in his best form besides.

The large earthling is pale and his mane is depressingly short, bar a flop of white hair over his forehead. He chatters a bit, but Sendak is focused on the smaller earthlings. They’re like little Galran kittens, shy. He thinks, vaguely, that they look like they’re not properly fed. Both are stick-skinny, and their manes aren’t properly groomed. Sendak’s hand twitches on his doorknob.

Anything to get them to go away faster, Sendak distractedly nods. “Not now. I’m in heat.” Sendak is too far from altruistic to want to do anything with anyone who isn’t relevant to his career at the moment.

He turns his head back to his laptop, on the inside. He’s received a message. “Another time, maybe.” Sendak fully intends to never see the earthling again, but it’s Prorok’s face that flashes. He counts the days, remembering Prorok’s birthday party. He’d invited everyone in the office. His mood sours. What day was it going to be held on, again?

“Next Saturday,” he says commandingly. The small brown-maned one is spreading its hands all around his leg, and he’s tempted to shake it off. It looks like it’d be light enough that he doesn’t need to put much effort in the motion. It would probably go flying, though, and Sendak does not want to have to clean its remains off his doorstep. The other one looks curious, poking its head out to stare openly. Sendak knows a look of desire when he sees one. His fur already feels disgusting enough as it is, clogged with pheromones - he is not about to let it add to the feeling.

“See you around, then? Have a good day!” There’s red creeping up the earthling’s neck, flush to his ears, now.

Sendak grunts again and swings the door shut in his face. What was that? He reaches down to scratch the side of his stomach, realizes that he’s not wearing a shirt. He shrugs, and goes back to his armchair. Haxus has just sent him another email about guards not turning up for their shifts, and he sighs, sinking down.

It’s cold. He’s in for a long night.

-

The next time he meets his new neighbor, it’s Saturday, and he’s completely forgotten about the appointment he’d made in his fever-induced haze. He’s on his way out the door, wrapped toy in hand, (a juvenile present for a juvenile Galra), when he hears his name being called out. “Sendak!”

It’s the earthling family, all bundled up through their civilian clothes. He’s seen them around, of course, the new neighbors. They’re alright. They don’t make a mess. They keep to themselves. He doesn’t really know how they know his name. For a few moments, he draws a blank, and then he remembers - ah yes, them dropping in, the man’s flush, the little ones.

The big one’s wearing a shirt with the word Champion on it. The Champion bounds up to him, his spawn in tow. “You were coming to pick us up?” He’s smiling at Sendak again. Sendak has seen him taking his spawn out. They look happy next to him, and even though Sendak’s first impression had been of an imbecile (as was his general first impression of most people), there’s a quiet confidence exuding off the man that he can’t wholly point towards as incapability.

“What are you holding?” the brown-haired earthling asks.

“A gift.”

The black-haired earthling interjects. “No, but what’s inside?” it asks, exasperated. The small ones, at least, show a voracity for knowledge that Sendak approves of. The Champion is raising them well. 

“A transforming robot.”

“R-really? What color?”

“Green.” Green is an eyesore. It goes terribly with purple, and Prorok, being the nationalist he is, has all the rooms and furniture in his house themed purple. He would have had to display it out of mutual respect towards Sendak. 

“I love green!” Now, it is the brown-haired one who speaks, tripping over itself as it runs up to Sendak. It immediately gets up again, unfazed, and clings to his leg. “Can I have it?”

The Champion has been silent through all this. He’s looking at Sendak, a searching and lost, and Sendak curiously says, “You may.” 

Its mouth, tiny, grows uncharacteristically big on its face. “Thanks, Sendak!” The Champion looks towards him gratefully, and repeats the small one. “Thank you.”

Sendak can’t help but think the gift would be wasted on Prorok, when the small one looks so much happier to have it. It makes Sendak reflect, a little, and he does not find the outcome disagreeable. He can get Prorok some exotic meal platter or another instead. It is more pragmatic, and perhaps it may even let Prorok excuse his absence. He knows the… luxury that the Galran likes to indulge in. He does not want Prorok’s simpering gratitude, but Sendak is feeling unusually benevolent, especially with the earthling litter in front of him. The box is nearly half the size of the brown-haired one, and it can barely wrap its arms around the diameter.

Sendak takes the Champion around. There’s not much to see on this torus. It is mostly residential, for the family of merchants travelling across the galaxy cluster; it has barely twenty thousand beings in it in any given time. The kittens seem especially thrilled, looking at the way the torus curls up into the horizon, rows and rows of residential units and industrial blocks that seem to go on forever.

The section that they are in is nondescript; when Sendak had been first discharged onto the ship, this had been a mostly undeveloped area. Now, years later, it is cookie-cuttered from the template model near the ship docks. Apart from a few basic needs shops, the only place of interest is the farm. It is the ship’s sole source of blewah, a sweet, aromatic fruit that becomes even sweeter on the tongue. Sendak himself is surprised to see how much it has changed.

The tone he has is droll when he explains that he is the head of the security firm in charge of the torus. The headquarters is just on the edge of the section border, and the building stands tall and imposing in the distance, too far away to be included in the tour. The kittens are amazed again. They love it. They call him a hero, for fighting the bad guys. There is nothing Sendak has to be truly proud of, yet it fans his ego in a pleasing way, to be acknowledged.

Time passes quickly, and soon, they have finished covering their block. The Champion invites him to dinner at his house as a thank you, ordering takeout for the four of them from a Morithian restaurant. He is insistent, and he doesn’t allow Sendak to reject. The resultant collection is a mix and match of orders, and they eat it in the Champion’s living room.

There are awards adorning the walls, carefully hung and framed. While chewing on some videar meat at his position on the dining table, he can see that they are military accolades, given to a Takashi Shirogane. There are medals and plaques. There seem to be more in boxes strewn in the living room, cast aside, forgotten. The ones that are up on the wall are more obscured by multicolored scrawls on what looks to be a very thin cloth. They tend to feature a black figure, and two small green and red figures, occupied with some activity or another.

Shirogane catches him looking.

“Do you like the drawings?” he asks, voice wry. “Keith drew them. You wouldn’t expect him to be much of a an artist, but there it is.”

“I had been looking at your medals. You were a decorated soldier.” It is not a question.

Shirogane seems surprised. “Oh, those things? They’re old. Not really part of my life now.” He seems to glean something from the way that Sendak is staring at him with renewed interest. “I used to serve as a combat pilot in the Milky Way Galaxy’s Battalion. I got honorably discharged. Medical.” He shrugs, pulling up his right sleeve to reveal his prosthetic. 

There’s some background noise from the holographic screen tucked near the wall. It’s some sort of cartoon playing, and there are explosions, bright red and yellow on the off-white walls. The kittens are watching it avidly.

Sendak touches his own left arm, prosthetic.

“It is strange that you are here alone, with no other companions from Earth. Your kind tends to stay in groups.” In a transient port-focused torus, Sendak has seen his share of earthlings, rare as they were. “But alone as you are, you are doing well with your spawn, Shirogane.”

They’re jostling each other playfully now. The black-haired one is feeding the brown-haired one with a spoon. The latter has its mouth open in awe, spraying food every now and then as it points excitedly to something it has seen on the screen. The black-haired one is well-trained enough to pretend to be patient, but Sendak can see its mouth twitch when some projectiles land on its shirt.

Sendak thinks of his residential unit. It seems.. emptier, somehow, after today. Even though the architecture is similar, with his own uniform and medals displayed proudly, there is something missing in it.

“Um, thanks,” Shirogane replies. Sendak turns to look at him smiling. “They’re not actually mine. Dr. Holt left with Matt to go on an expedition, and Pidge here was too young. So he left him with me. Keith is… My sister left me with Keith. So it’s just the three of us now; me, Keith, and Pidge.” He has a wistful expression on his face, and Sendak decides not to ask more.

“Oh, and you don’t have to be so formal. You can call me Shiro. All my friends call me it.”

The holographic screen casts shadows on Shiro’s cheekbones, the light flickering across his eyes. They’re typically black, but they look brown, almost golden, now. Yellow reflects off them, like he has Galran eyes. Sendak thinks about a different life, where they could have conscripted into the military together, as peacekeepers for the galaxy. That is something he sorely misses, he realizes. Someone that would have motivated him to go further, to do more. Now, he is at a dead end. He has nothing to show for the military career he had in his past, and neither does Shiro. 

It’s when Shiro looks up at him, tilting his head, asking, “How about you?” that Sendak realizes that: Oh. It doesn’t matter whether or not he’s Galran. Shiro will be his.

-

With a vengeance, over the next few months, Sendak courts.

-

The first offering he makes is a Balmeran crystal. It hadn’t been easy to get, nor cut and polish. He’d had to track down a mining ship for it, intimidate one of the workers into giving him a piece, then blackmail a jeweler into keeping his work for it quiet. He brings it over; a gem the size of his palm, glowing faintly with purple. The quintessence is pure and untouched within it. They don’t use quintessence anymore, nowadays, but the power is still compatible with many things, and extracting it will let many sorts of appliances last a lifetime. A practical gift, when Shiro will be his mate for life.

Shiro thanks him for it. He looks expectantly at Shiro, yet Shiro does not fall into his arms. Shiro says that he can’t possibly accept it, and pushes the crystal back into Sendak’s hands, but invites him to dinner that night.

Sendak crushes the crystal into a fine dust in his fist when he returns to his house. He then changes into one of his finer suits.

-

The second offering he makes is a assortment of Laxahin delicacies. Sendak has tried them before. The taste is strong, and they are considered particularly welcome in the colder climates, as the Phyrol galaxy tends to be classified into. They cannot feel the cold on the torus, in constant orbit of Ytolam, but many take the gesture appreciatively. He has heard that the fruit aids in the fertility of the consumer; Shiro will get the hint.

It seems like Shiro is again, hesitant to take the gift. He tries to ask all of them to share it, doles it out in small little bites to everyone. The kittens love it, and they scarf it down. Shiro, however, plays with his food. Apparently, it goes appallingly with the concoction that Shiro calls ‘coffee’. The look of discomfort on his face is obvious, and Sendak cannot help but feel disappointed.

-

The back and forth between them starts there.

A few days after that incident, Shiro, as if guilty over not being able to partake, tries to reciprocate. He brings over a jar of something that he calls chocolate chip cookies, and asks Sendak to try one. Sendak hesitates. It looks like droppings. But Shiro is insistent. He tells Sendak that he had been baking them, together with his children, and his eyes do that expression when they turn into little crescents, along with his smile. Sendak begrudgingly accepts, and tries to swallow it to get it over with.

It gets stuck in his throat, his fangs unable to properly chew it, too hard to swallow, yet too soft to rend. Shiro dithers, worried, and Sendak figures out that it is still warm, and that his incisors are supposed to be doing the work - not the canines. It’s sweet on his tongue, and melts. It’s nothing that Sendak has ever tasted before. It has to be processed in some way or form, and Shiro tells him that he baked these cookies. Sendak demands to find out how this could have been produced in the same machines that create the itterbian screens for their holographic pads. Shiro finds it amusing, and promises Sendak that if he’s so curious, he should come over and find out.

The revelation of something called an ‘oven’ gives Sendak an excuse to come over as a weekly appointment. Shiro bakes him different things. Apple pies, cinnamon rolls, croissants. He claims that they are common back on Earth, where he is from. Sendak finds the effort made into it arduous. Since young, it had been beaten into Sendak that food was meant simply for nourishment. Shiro familiarizes him unwittingly with the idea of it as a pastime meant for enjoyment, something he had thought was exclusive to hedonists.

He teaches Sendak how to do it too, breaking it down into protocols that Sendak can more easily follow. Sendak looks at Shiro’s hands, one white, one black, both nimble, and tries to replicate the motion with his own paw and prosthetic combination. He… is not used to doing delicate work with them. Shiro assures him that it comes with practice, and on the third session, Pidge finally declares Sendak’s cookies edible.

-

Three months pass, and Sendak goes into heat. He shows up at Shiro’s doorstep. He knows his pheromones are radiating off him in waves, and that it would trigger any virile Galran into a heat along with him.

Shiro opens the door, this time with Keith and Pidge at his heels. “Sendak?” he immediately looks concerned, shooting the small ones back inside the home.

“Shiro,” Sendak greets, panting.

“What's wrong?” Shiro raises his hand, touching Sendak’s temple. Sendak leans into his touch, deliciously cool, trying to follow it when it goes back to Shiro’s side. He gives a whine. The earthling stutters, and Pidge asks, “Dad, what’s with Sendak?”

“Not now, Pidge. Watch the house for a couple of hours, please. I’ll… be back soon.” There’s a decisive look on Shiro’s face now as he looks at Sendak, up and down. These earthlings get red so easily, Sendak thinks, as Shiro takes his hand and pulls him outside.

He drags Sendak to his residential unit. The door is unlocked from when Sendak had left his house, somewhat in a daze. He’d read about it happening before, of course. The lack of control is supposed to be embraced, and it manifests differently in each individual Galran, depending on the preferences of the mate that they have imprinted on.

Shiro tucks him back into bed. Sendak doesn’t feel self-conscious about sharing his nest with someone he knows he wants, but even he can discern how careful Shiro is not to touch anything. He doesn’t stop staring at the skulls mounted on the mantelpiece, hunted game that Sendak had played with, back when he still had his arm. Back when he wasn’t stuck on a spaceship, and had leave to actually explore newer planets with the military. 

He wonders if Shiro wants to have an experience like it. He knows that there is always a hidden bloodlust in many men, and that for someone like Shiro, entrusted with the care of children, there is little room to let off steam. Shiro looks too civil, on the surface - Sendak wants to break him open, see the monsters crawling inside, wants for an abyss within Shiro to swallow him just as the way thoughts of Shiro have consumed his mind. The image of Shiro, red with carnage, belly swelling with Sendak’s child, gets him hard, and he jerks off fruitlessly to the thought of it in his head once Shiro is in the next room, finding no real relief.

For the entire week, Shiro stays by his bedside, but doesn't make a move. Sendak is tempted, of course, to take him then and there, but for some reason, Shiro looks especially fragile. Worried about him, for a reason that Sendak can't understand. Sendak doesn’t understand earthling social habits. Whether Shiro reciprocates or not, he cannot tell.

Shiro brings him a food called chicken noodle soup that slides, slippery, down his throat. It is salty and warm, and nothing like anything that Sendak has ever tasted before. Still, it is good.

In between bouts of consciousness, he tells Shiro stories of the planets he had conquered, before. He tells him about how useless Haxus and Prorok and his goons are. He tells him about how he doesn’t necessarily agree with everything that Haggar chooses to do, because the way Haggar chooses to employ certain methods to keep the security of the torus as tight as it is are cowardly, and he tells Shiro about how he thinks, still, that for all his flaws, Emperor Zarkon was a Galra that should be owed respect, because he maintained ten thousand years of peace, even if it meant that people had to be enslaved. He would have been honored, to live in that time, acting as an officer for the Empire. He tells Shiro that he thinks Shiro could have been great in the Empire, too. He has the discipline for it, and together, they would have been unstoppable.

Shiro grips his hand tightly, and says that no, for all the glory he could have earned, he would never have wanted to be part of the Empire. If anything, he says, we could have been good as part of Voltron together. He says that if he was stuck fighting a hopeless battle against an empire, he would have wanted to do it next to someone he trusts, someone he respects.

Sendak’s mane puffs out underneath his furs, and he scoffs. Shiro, wry, adds that he would have preferred to be part of the winning side anyway.

Despite all odds, the Paladins of Voltron had defeated the Empire a few centuries ago. Then, they had spent the remaining span of their existence quelling the pockets of rebellion that had arisen, spreading a culture of treatises instead of dominating their enemies into submission.

Sendak has to concede on that point. It would not be so bad to be with Shiro in Voltron, he acknowledges. If he was stuck with buffoons like Haxus working in his squadron, there was no universe in which he would give it up for a chance to work with Shiro instead.

Sendak’s heat passes without fulfillment, but Sendak is strangely content. He would have liked to fuck Shiro into the mattress during the days he’d visited, seen Shiro’s stomach filling with his cum, but Shiro does not accept his gifts, and Sendak is too proud to declare his intentions without ascertaining Shiro’s interest in him.

-

It is Shiro’s turn to be bedridden next. He insists that he is fine, but Sendak catches him fainting near his doorstep, and hefts him in his arms to bring him to the bed.

Sendak parrots what Shiro did for him during his heat. He doesn’t think that Shiro’s species undergoes heats, but he cannot be certain. Keith and Pidge are unusually quiet during this time. They do not rebel against Sendak. The obedience is more out of respect and fear for Shiro rather than intimidation from Sendak’s form, this, he can tell.

Sendak cannot be there for Shiro the whole time, however, unlike Shiro had been for him. Shiro worked from his home, running coordination for the docking merchants with his partners, Allura and Coran. Sendak learns their names when he watches Shiro, sneezing, working his way through his correspondence. He tells Sendak about his job, about how they’re still a small start-up. They are aggressively expanding across galaxy clusters now, this galaxy cluster being their first after the Milky Way.

He doesn’t have family at home, back on Earth. He had been an orphan along with his sister, but lucky enough to excel at the academy in his youth and secure a scholarship at the Garrison. Otherwise, Shiro would have likely ended up dead in a ditch, overdosed on drugs. He could have led a very different life. He doesn’t say anything about his sister past the time he talks about his childhood.

Sendak comes in the morning, and at night. He does not take the kittens anywhere during the day, but he checks on them nonetheless, to see if they have survived the night, and to allot them nutrition. The kittens are too young to go to the torus-wide academy. Keith will be of age next year, but not yet.

They have never seen Shiro bedridden, they tell him. Pidge ends up tearing, trying to build something, anything that will get Shiro back to normal. Keith only silently watches.

Sendak takes Keith aside to tell him that the sickness is nothing, that it will pass, and that he must have the courage to inspire Pidge to have solidarity in trying times. He instructs him to be brave. It is the first time Sendak has genuinely had a conversation long enough to matter with the earthling, but Keith understands. His mouth is set stubbornly as he nods. He wipes up Pidge’s tears with his shirt, and Sendak leaves the two of them to talk together.

At night, after Sendak comes back from work, he brings dinner for all of them. He helps Shiro keep the place tidy. The kittens go into their beds when Sendak tells them to, and Pidge gets tucked in with the green robot, Keith with a red robot Sendak had gotten to match Pidge’s last month. Sendak then goes back to his house at the end of it all, to repeat the cycle the next day.

Shiro tries very hard to complicate matters by insisting that he is fine. It makes no sense to Sendak how Shiro keeps attempting to delay his recovery by exerting himself. He shuts down each and every time Shiro as much as begins politely declining his assistance, bringing dinner directly to Shiro’s bedside, watching him eat like a hawk.

It takes a week, in the end, for Shiro to recover. He allows Pidge to climb his head out of joy the day Shiro is finally able to walk through the house without swaying precariously, hears the kitten whoop out of joy in between his ears. Shiro gives a little sneeze from the kitchen, mugs of something he calls hot chocolate made for all for of them.

Keith beams at Sendak and Pidge, a ring of brown milk around his mouth.

-

They set up a routine.

When Shiro finds out about the Sendak’s diet of nutritional bars, gruel, and the occasional steak, he is appalled. Sendak ends up going over to Shiro’s house more often than not to get the coats he leaves behind when Shiro catches him returning early from work every few days, and invites him for dinner. At first, it is intentional. After a while, the negligence actually results from the sheer number of times he he has been getting invited.

-

He begins teaching the kittens how to write in Galran. The language is very different from Alltext, and while Keith has some trouble with it, Pidge takes to it like a sponge soaking up water. They write him short notes, secret messages about their day to day activities in a very broken form of the language, grammar rules completely ignored. The bigger ones with Shiro, Keith, Pidge and Sendak drawn on paper, in black, red, green, and purple crayon, are deemed good enough to be put up on the walls, covering even more of Shiro’s medals.

-

They celebrate Pidge’s birthday.

Sendak and Shiro bake the cake together, something called a strawberry shortcake. The kittens love it, asking for slice after slice, which Shiro just shakes his head at after the third. They get gifts for Pidge - a visit to the optometrist, noticing how Pidge has been squinting at objects recently, returning home that day with a pair of large round spectacles. It makes Pidge look older and wiser, and Pidge taunts Keith with that fact, especially since Pidge has been growing in height as of late.

The day ends when Pidge falls asleep over an introductory manual Sendak had gotten about software engineering. Pidge had mentioned an interest in knowing how networks function last week, watching Shiro work from his desk as Sendak had been putting the plates away.

-

Shiro has been going out more often. With the foundations of their network laid, now it is up to Shiro to sell their company to merchants who are not as convinced without face-to-face meetings. Sendak watches Keith and Pidge in the meanwhile, when Shiro travels out of the torus and does day-trips to neighboring ships. They don’t have beds for themselves when they stay over, the extra room in Sendak’s room dedicated to storage, but they are perfectly content to curl up on his bed.

-

Like this, nearly six months pass.

For the past few weeks, Shiro has been growing distant.

Sendak knows why.

He has seen the boxes steadily being packed up, how clean the house has been of late.

There are things he forgets, and then there are times when he remembers what he has forgotten. He recalls their first meeting now. ‘Temporarily stationed.’ The words play back and haunt him; he feels foolish for thinking that he had had a chance against Shiro’s evaluation of his duty.

He’s angry. He’s furious enough that he spends much longer at the gym now, hours upon hours of work with the punching bag. At work, he’s one of the last at the training area. The AI in charge of maintenance has started getting snippy with him despite how long he has worked in the company. It doesn’t appreciate its training dummies getting mauled. There are trees in the torus for that purpose, it quips. Sendak growls at it to shut up.

Still, he visits for dinner. Shiro is busy, the kittens reticent. Sendak has caught him staring into space, gnawing at his knuckles, more than once. He doesn’t turn red anymore when Sendak does favors for him, taking it absentmindedly, without gratitude. It makes Sendak want to destroy the table. He does not want for Shiro to waste his time like this. He forces himself not to dwell on the way Shiro still laughs at him when Pidge still insists on making him read a bedtime story before he goes.

It comes to a head on a Saturday.

Sendak is tired of smoke, of playing games in the shadows. Honor is not found in hiding away conflict. He brings up the matter casually after dinner, when Shiro is washing up.Keith and Pidge are in their rooms. This time, the meal had been a quiet affair.

Sendak stalks towards him, close enough that his chest is touching Shiro’s back. 

“Takashi.” Startled, Shiro drops the plate he’s holding into the sink. It clatters, the ceramic on metal a discordant sound.

“Sendak?” Shiro’s voice is slow.

“I have imprinted on you.”

“W- what do you mean?” He laughs to ease the tension, clearly artificial. “Imprinted?”

“I have wanted you as my mate.” The way Sendak says it is simple. His intentions are obvious.

Shiro turns the faucet off, wipes his hands with the dishtowel hanging near the rack. He turns around to face Sendak, and Sendak has him cornered, trapped between his body and the counter.

“From the beginning. We are alike, you and I. In many ways - I have seen that from the start, and I have wanted you. You taught me to experience life differently. It has changed, since the moment I met you, and I cannot think of a life without you now.”

“I… I-” Shiro starts, then falters. He brings his hand to his face, pinches the bridge of his nose. “I like you too, Sendak, but-” His voice is utterly broken.

He looks at him, cups Shiro’s cheek with his paw, his prosthetic bringing Shiro’s hand away from his face. He bends down so that they are eye level, and touches his forehead to his.

“Stay.”

It is a gesture meant only for expressions of great love. It means devotion, because it leaves both Galrans vulnerable, their eyes focused only on each other. Sires touch their foreheads to their kittens. Mates touch their foreheads on their official day of union.

In Galra, it means ‘family’.

“Stay with me.”

Shiro is frozen underneath him, the turmoil in his eyes evident. After a moment, as if he has been gathering courage, Shiro finally leans up, throwing his arms around Sendak’s neck, dragging him even closer to him. His lips touch Sendak’s, pressing against them with a passion that seems desperate.

Sendak does not understand the significance of the returning gesture, but he can tell that it is important to Shiro to be able to do this. It feels sacred, somehow, with the way that Shiro looks at him now, eyes filled with emotion.

“I can’t. My lease is ending next week.” he whispers. His breath tickles Sendak’s cheek. “But I…” he’s smiling at Sendak, even though he’s obviously in pain. “I thought that I was hoping too much. I love you. I love you too. But everything’s been arranged. The Rhemil cluster is too far, a month’s journey away from here. And you know that I can’t afford warping.”

Sendak knows of it. It is in the opposite direction of this one, on the other side of the Milky Way. Even further away from the Galran planet, although Sendak himself had been born on a ship.

It takes little time for Sendak to decide his next course of action.

“Then I will go with you.”

Shiro looks at him, stunned.

“What?”

The way that Sendak says it surprises even himself. The answer is logical enough, yet somehow, it seems that Shiro has never thought of it. Six months ago, Sendak would not have thought of it either.

“As your mate, to the Rhemil cluster.”

He had not been happy with his life before, but he had been content. Now, Sendak sees how he had been stagnated in his position on the torus. Years spent with no results, working in a place with people he tolerates, but does not enjoy the company of. He cannot immediately consider any other alternative, and he is too prideful to go back on his confession, tail tucked between his legs like a coward.

“Don’t you have work?” Shiro asks, cautiously. Sendak shakes his head. He knows it will be easy for him to leave this life behind. He just has to send a letter of resignation to Haggar. Prorok will appreciate the promotion. “That is easily resolved. I can inform Haggar tomorrow. They will not miss me.” The torus is safe. There has never been any major incidents in the sleepy mining planet district.

“I’ll have to talk to Allura,” he says, “and Coran.” His voice is gaining strength and speed now, a grin splitting his face. Shiro’s cheeks are flushed red. “Someone with your experience dealing with merchants would definitely help us. You could work with us. We could branch out.”

“We would be good together,” Shiro says, voice filled with wonder. “I’ll tell the kids. They like you a lot. I might think they love you even more than me.”

Sendak leans to press his mouth to Shiro’s again. Shiro seems to appreciate it, because his hands grip tighter on the fur on Sendak’s nape.

There’s a shout of excitement, and then a slam - Shiro breaks away to turn and look. Keith and Pidge are lying on the floor, the door of their bedroom wide open, rubbing their heads. Sendak mutters under his breath, then follows Shiro to hound them into brushing their teeth. Shiro doesn’t seem to mind too much that the kittens had been watching, and he keeps sneaking glances at Sendak as they hover over them in the bathroom.

Sendak finds that he will be looking forward to catching Shiro trying to be surreptitious everyday from now on, for the rest of his life.


End file.
